Rifle-balancing in precision shooting: behavioral aspects and psychophysiological implication

This study investigated sharpshooters' strategies to control their rifle stability during the aiming period. Six elite and six pre-elite shooters completed a simulated realistic shooting task (laser rifle), and their performance was evaluated from behavioral and psychophysiological perspectives. The analysis of the rifle's barrel movement, indexing the shooter's behavioral performance, supported the view that rifle-balancing is an essential determinant of superior shooting performance. The psychophysiological data, i.e. the brain slow potentials, suggested that the shooters applied different rifle-hold strategies; the elite shooters concentrated primarily on achieving a stable rifle position using psychomotor regulation, whereas the pre-elite shooters were more reliant on the visual-spatial processing. The present study has implications for the understanding of psychological aspects in competitive precision shooting, as well as for the evaluation of the functional significance of the electrocortical slow potentials in shooting-like closed-skill sports.